Taiwan nationalists pick Jennifer Wang as running mate

TAIPEI - Presidential candidate Eric Chu, chairman of Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, announced on Wednesday that Jennifer Wang, a former labour minister, will run alongside him in January's election.

Wang, 54, a lawyer who gained prominence as an advocate for labour and women's rights, ran the Council of Labor Affairs from 2008 before it was upgraded to a ministry. She caused public uproar as minister once by supporting an education ministry policy that endorsed corporate pay for graduates of only 22,000 New Taiwan dollars a month (about $670).

With Chu lagging in the polls, the Nationalists are also expected to lose the parliamentary vote to the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which advocates more standoffish relations with China.

Earlier in the week, Chu returned from a trip to the US, Taiwan's most important strategic ally. He was received there by senior officials, including Daniel Kritenbrink, the National Security Council's Asia director, and Daniel Russel, an assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific.